Thanks for the reviews, always appreciated.  I have a couple of those Figure-9 dealios and haven't tried them yet.


Ranger wrote on Sep 19^th, 2011 at 11:32pm:

CCS Lean 3+: finally spent a night in the Lean 3 and thought it was far better than the tent - more space and better air flow. The only downside that I see is that unless you carry poles, you have to be willing to pass up sites if the tree/ground combo is not favorable. And it if were cold, the tent would be much warmer.

I often hear this mentioned with respect to tarp shelters and wonder.  It has been 5+ years since I tripped with a tent.  Never had a problem when there aren't any trees close by.  It might cost me a 6' - 8' length of potential firewood, but poles are plentiful.
I hate using paddles as poles unless it's only for one night and I'm not going out in the canoe after shelter's up.